


Missing the Obvious

by pastelserpent



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas Party, Eventual Romance, F/M, Hogwarts, Mutual Pining, Oblivious, Secret Crush, Slug Club, Slytherin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24145435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastelserpent/pseuds/pastelserpent
Summary: A small envelope had somehow found its way into my room, and sat innocently at the end of my bed while I continued to ignore it, much to the annoyance of my curious dorm mates, “why don’t you just open it already?” Pansy probed one cold morning as I slipped into my shoes and braided my hair, “because I already know what it is, and I have no intention of going,” I replied staring through the room, to the fire at the end which danced brightly – taking the edgy gloom off the room, “is that the thing Potter received?” Paige asked slightly more gently as she fiddled with the ends of Alice’s hair, I nodded silently, dumping the unopened envelope in my open trunk. “half of Slytherin received the stupid thing,” I stated bitterly, tossing the envelope a dark look, “I didn’t,” Pansy muttered matter-of-factly from her bed, skim reading several textbook pages before scribbling something down on the piece of parchment next to it. No doubt a piece of homework she had ‘forgotten’ about.*1st person perspective** hope you like it :)
Relationships: Blaise Zabini/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	1. The Invite

A small envelope had somehow found its way into my room, and sat innocently at the end of my bed while I continued to ignore it, much to the annoyance of my curious dorm mates, “why don’t you just open it already?” Pansy probed one cold morning as I slipped into my shoes and braided my hair, “because I already know what it is, and I have no intention of going,” I replied staring through the room, to the fire at the end which danced brightly – taking the edgy gloom off the room, 

“is that the thing Potter received?” Paige asked slightly more gently as she fiddled with the ends of Alice’s hair, I nodded silently, dumping the unopened envelope in my open trunk. “half of Slytherin received the stupid thing,” I stated bitterly, tossing the envelope a dark look, “I didn’t,” Pansy muttered matter-of-factly from her bed, skim reading several textbook pages before scribbling something down on the piece of parchment next to it. No doubt a piece of homework she had ‘forgotten’ about.

“well I suspect I'm going to have an earful of it,” I muttered under my breath, I could already hear my perfect prefect sister’s insistence that I attend, “honestly, Slughorn gives me the creeps,” Alice stated, speaking up for the first time, “he does for me too, and anyone with the word ‘slug’ in their name automatically worries me, it’s like people were trying to warn us about how slimy he is,” I agreed, shuddering at the thought of the latest potions professor,

“give me Snape any day compared to him,” Pansy stated flatly from her bed – having already gotten into more than one heated conversation with the new potions master, “that’s only because he loved you,” Paige grumbled, potions had not been her favourite subject, and despite being a Slytherin, Snape hadn’t been overly fond of her, then again, she hadn’t been all that fond of him either. 

“so, what is the letter?” Pansy asked again, “Slug Club,” I muttered breaking open the seal for the first time since I’d received it a few days earlier, “but I'm not going,” Pansy jumped onto the bed to read the letter over my shoulder, and she was joined by the rest of our dorm. “just put no, what’s the worst that can happen? He doesn’t favourite you? what a shame that wouldn’t be,” Alice stated, I nodded, touching ‘decline’ with my wand on the end of the paper, but nothing happened, I tried again, and still nothing happened. And then ‘accept’ circled itself, I scoffed in disgust, “the utter creep doesn’t even let you decline,” Paige muttered disgusted, 

“whose even surprised? The Slug Club is supposedly his way of getting his favourite students and himself, extra credit,” Pansy commented folding up the end of her parchment and stuffing it quickly into her bag. “does your sister know yet?” Paige asked from where she was stood tidying up her hair, “does she heck, if I tell her, she’ll hound me to go, and I'm not doing that,” our whole dorm hated my prefect sister Dia, too perfect and yet too sly for anyone to like her. Making her the perfect fit to be a Slytherin. Not that she was particularly popular within Slytherin.

“did anyone save seats at the table?” I muttered wanting to forget about Slughorn and his little club for as long as possible, “pretty sure Neffie did,” Paige replied offering a small smile, clearly my unhappiness was written across my face, she linked arms with me as we walked out through the common room and down to the great hall. “you can always talk to him in potions and turn him down,” she suggested as we entered the hall, and walked across to the Slytherin table, 

“I don’t want to talk to him,” I replied settling down next to her at the table, and then staring through the food on the table. “y/n,” I snapped out of my daze only to see my brother squeezing himself between Alice and Paige on the bench, much to their disgruntlement, “I hear you got a Slug Club invitation,” he stated, “what of it?” Neffie retorted immediately, I offered her a weak smile before turning to my brother expectantly – he would never tell me something I already knew, “well, did you know Zabini got one too?”

My stomach dropped automatically at the mention of his name, just as he walked into the hall with his own dorm mates, I turned hurriedly to my brother whose face was the very picture of a smug Slytherin, “is he going?” he shrugged casually, “I think he heard you were going and decided he would,” I groaned as my brother walked off to the other end of the table, my head dropping down onto the table with a mild clang, ignoring the strange looks I received, I whimpered quietly, “why??” I groaned sitting back up to the apologetic smiles of my friends. “I'm definitely not going in that case,” I stated, Neffie having had enough of my dramatics set about making breakfast, 

“you have to eat,” she stated pouring a mug of steaming coffee and putting it in front of me. I ignored it pushing it away from me, I heard her sigh before beginning to poke me in the ribs, “what’s up with her?” a voice from behind me asked, I breathed a sigh of relief when I realised it was Higgs behind us, rather than anyone else. Having grown up with Higgs being best friend to my older brother, we had a close relationship, and he was one of the only people in Slytherin brave enough to hug me, knowing he wouldn’t be limping away with the effects of a stinging curse still happening.

“she’s just been given bad news, and got an invite to the Slug Club,” Alice explained to him quickly, he sighed, moving to stand behind me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders, pulling me back into his body, “I wouldn’t waste your time with Sluggie’s little club, my brother was part of it, and let’s just say he didn’t have an enjoyable time,” he patted my shoulder, giving me a final squeeze before walking off to join his friends. 

“no one mention this to my sister,” I glanced across each of their faces, as they all nodded, miming zipping their mouths shut, I sighed staring at the coffee for a moment, before taking out my wand and tapping it several times, to inject caramel and ice cubes into it. Neffie rolled her eyes, continuing to eat, as did the others, I rested my face in my hand, taking the occasional sip of the coffee, but thoroughly disinterested. At the other end of the table sat Zabini and Malfoy surrounded by a few of their followers, both eating and talking in hushed tones – their various followers hanging on whatever word they could hear, turning away from them, I sighed. 

I had to find a way to get out of his little club, and fast.

My favourite subject followed, defence against the dark arts could usually raise a smile on my face, but all I could think of was wanting to use one of the banned curses on the incompetent person in front of me, sighing I finished the duel by sending him flying backwards, uncaring of where he landed. “Miss y/l/n!” Snape yelled, I groaned expecting yet another earful, “ten points to Slytherin, excellent defence,” I smiled smugly watching where my opponent was laying crumpled on the floor, staring angrily at Snape and then me, rolling my eyes and smiling sweetly, 

I walked away from the scene, towards the edge of the room where Neffie was sat fiddling with her cloak, she stopped as I approached, “nice takeout,” she congratulated me as I settled down next to her, “incompetent fool,” I muttered unable to hide my loathing of the crappy partner I had been put against. “if Snape keeps you with him, you’ll get a lot of points for Slytherin,” she remarked starting to fiddle with her hair, “I would rather be put against Zabini than that fool again, and we all know that wouldn’t end well.”

Apparently it really wasn’t my day, as Snape swapped our partners, so I was now against Malfoy, “hello y/l/n,” he greeted me, a smile on the edge of his lips, “Malfoy,” I replied, it wasn’t that we weren’t friends, but pleasantries really weren’t the top of my list. Least of all with the Slytherin prince. He smirked drawing out his wand, I knew Malfoy of old, and I knew duelling was one of his forte’s, especially as he relished in using spells that his opponents rarely knew. Him and Blaise were the two Slytherin boys you never wanted to get into a duel with if you didn’t have to, because the chances were you wouldn’t leave with all of your limbs where they had been when you’d started. 

It really was my day. 

I watched as he cast several spells all at once, and sent them towards me, I glared at him, retaliating with a quick shield, before using one of my own spells, a tight coil around the wrist, and then a sharp blow backwards. I watched smiling as he flew back, and then landed on his feet, “an actual challenge, haven’t had one of those in a while,” he stated smiling – or rather smirking, brushing imaginary dirt off his robes, “well it looks like we both get what we want then,” I replied blocking out all of my other thoughts, and instead focusing purely on winning the duel. Snape called time before either of us could win, and we ended on a handshake, both of us parting smiling, “someone’s looking happier,” Neffie remarked, “well of course, I do believe I just got rid of my anger,” I replied smiling.

The lessons that followed bored me, and I spent most of my time sat next to Paige deciding how we were going to persuade my sister to get me out of the Slug Club, by the time I reached the common room I had already spied Dia. Walking in front of her, I extracted the book from her hand, “I need you to do something for me,” her eyebrow rose as I handed her back the now closed book, “use your perfectness, and get me out of the Slug Club,” she stared at me for a moment, contemplating what I just said, “have you not tried declining yourself? And anyway, I wouldn’t do it, Slughorn can really progress young witches and wizards, his connections are priceless,” I growled quietly, gripping my fists, 

“don’t you think I thought of that? I did decline, but when you hit decline nothing happens, and then it circles that you are attending, and I frankly couldn’t give a rat’s ass what kind of connections he has, get me out of it, for once in your life make yourself useful. I am begging you to get me out of it.” She sighed leaning back on the sofa, “no can do sis, it’s a great opportunity, one I wish I’d had, and our parents would kill me,” I rolled my eyes, folding my arms over my chest, “would hardly have been much of a loss,” she glared at me through her caramel orbs. 

“I don’t get why you don’t want to go, Sluggy is creepy I’ll grant you, but he is an intelligent man,” I stared at her for a moment in disbelief, “let’s cut to the chase Dia, are you going to get me out of this or not?” she shook her head nonchalantly, “a whole lot of use you turned out to be,” I muttered, placing a charm on her book as I walked away. “y/n!” she yelled, scaring half the common room, I turned back around to face her, “what is it this time Dia? Lose your page?” she growled under her breath, “what did you do?” I shrugged smiling easily, “do what?” she groaned gripping her book, as the rest of the common room watched on eagerly, 

“don’t play dumb, it doesn’t suit you, what did you do to my book?” I smiled smugly, “you refused to help me out, so good luck opening that precious book back up again,” I watched her smiling as she stopped around from the sofa to stand in front of me, well aware that the rest of the common room – including Blaise were watching, “look, the Slug Club isn’t that bad, dad was in it. So just get on with it and attend, before you do, uncharm my book,” I shrugged carelessly, “I couldn’t give less of a crap about your book, and that charm wears off after twenty four hours, you could try being sociable, for once,” I told her before walking out of the common room and up to our dorm.

Slamming the door shut behind me, I flopped down on my bed, it looked like I was going to the stupid thing whether I wanted to or not. And I definitely did not. Sighing I glanced at my dress that the girls had insisted on hanging up on the wall, a deep green, a mesh covering over the collar bones and arms, with the rest a flowing green, of medium length and fairly tight. My mum had sent it over especially several months before - for some Ball, looked like it was going to be being used before then. 

Sitting up, I rummaged through my trunk for my makeup bag, and began to slowly apply a green eye-shadow, and then eyeliner, which for me required a great deal of concentration, hence why I jumped so much when the door was slammed open and Pansy stalked in. “bloody Zabini,” she grumbled under her breath before noticing me, “I take it you are going to the Slug Club,” I cursed under my breath, “I'm surprised you haven’t heard, my sister refused to get me out of it. So, I have no damn choice,” she smiled coming up behind me and slowly undoing my braids, “that sucks, do you wanna know what Blaise did this time?”

I didn’t hide my smile as she began to recount the story, “bloody idiot then turned the table into a cat! He knows how to do it properly, but no! he just had to do it, and now I’ve got detention because of it – he hasn’t, but I have,” I laughed finishing up my makeup, “I'm sorry to bring him up, I know it’s a difficult topic for you,” she murmured running her hands through my hair, letting the natural waves fall below my shoulders. “it’s ok, that boat sailed a long time ago, it was just a small crush anyway,” her eyebrow rose, and I could tell she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t push it, 

“well he’s probably going to be late, so at least you get the satisfaction of him being late when you arrive,” I smiled slowly climbing off the bed and making my way towards the dress that was hung on the wall. “it’s a beautiful dress,” she commented reclining on my bed, I nodded silently before handing her the note that came with it, “to our Slytherin queen, for whoever is luckiest,” she read aloud before casting a glance at me.

“I could be reading too far into this,” I turned to face her, holding the dress against my olive skin to which she nodded, “but I'm pretty sure that Blaise has a tie the exact same colour,” I shrugged walking towards the bathroom, “probably does,” she shrugged in agreement. I slipped into the bathroom, and adjusted the dress, sliding the zip the last little way up before looking in the mirror, I had never liked dresses like this, ones that showed off what my body looked like, 

it always made me uncomfortable to be on show in such a way, Pansy on the other hand was completely fine with it. “are you ok in there?” Pansy yelled through the door, as I crumpled down onto the floor, leaning against the bath, my head in my hands, my shoulders shaking uncontrollably, a moment later she opened the door, and on seeing me immediately knelt down beside me, hugging me against her.

“what’s wrong sweetie? You look beautiful,” my breathing was still erratic as I attempted to calm down, “I can’t do this Pans, this is something my brother and sister do, but not me, this is Dia and Stefan’s area, not mine.” She shook her head, gently cleaning up my makeup, “this is your area, you are far better a witch than the pair of them put together, you are capable, intelligent, and breathtakingly beautiful. You deserve to be at that table every inch as much as anyone else, and I'm sure there will be someone you like there, it’s the best students, and you get on with people, it’ll be fine,” I nodded slowly hugging her tightly, “thanks Pans,” she smiled, 

“I'm cleaning up your makeup, you are then going to put on your shoes, and you are going to show everyone that you deserve to be there, and if Blaise is there, so be it.” She cleaned up my makeup in record time, and soon I was slipping into green soled heels, with a snake coiled around the heel, she nodded smiling as we stared in the mirror.

“thank you,” I murmured as she hugged me tightly, “every inch the Slytherin queen,” she stated smiling, I tucked my wand into my clutch, “let’s get you there,” she said quietly, gently pushing me out of the dorm with her behind me, we walked down the steps and out into the common room, where several other members of our house were also getting ready, including Blaise – who was tying the tie around his collar onto his black shirt, “and I'm back to wanting to retreat,” I muttered as my brother shoved his way to us, pushing several disgruntled first years out of the way without so much as a backward glance, 

“you look beautiful,” he declared squashing me in a hug against his chest, “let me breath.” I muttered grasping my clutch tightly, finally being released from his grip, just as Zabini turned around to look at us, “I better go,” I murmured glancing in any direction other than his, Pansy nodded noticing Zabini as well and turned us in the direction of the stairs, “aren’t you going to wait?” Malfoy called out stopping the pair of us dead in our tracks, Stefan already having taken up a sofa in front of the fire, “I don’t see why she should,” Pansy replied coolly, as Malfoy gestured wildly to Blaise behind his back, “I will not hesitate to crucio you if you don’t stop that,” Zabini stated to Draco without turning around. 

For someone with such an arrogance complex, he sure was perceptive. 

“I’ll take my chances alone,” I replied turning to the steps and climbing them, before waving to my brother and Pansy, and then exiting the common room. I began the long walk to Sluggy’s meeting place silently, only the sound of my heels on the floor making anyone aware of my movements. Arriving outside of Sluggy’s Slug Club office, I noticed Hermione Granger immediately, her hair had been curled neatly, and she had slid into a red dress, but she was still beautifully intelligent Hermione, she smiled all but running over to me, “thank Merlin, I thought I was going to have to be on my own,” she muttered as we smiled politely at Slughorn – who had appeared in the doorway, before stepping into his room,

“is Miss Weasley not with you two?” he asked as we sat next to each other at the circular table that took up most of the room in the office, “she isn’t feeling too well, professor,” Hermione quickly explained, as we rested our clutches in our lap, he nodded sympathetically before turning to greet the next guests. Potter slid in next to Hermione, offering me a small - if quizzical smile, as the rest of the guests began to arrive I groaned quietly, realising there were only two spare seats that were waiting to be filled, one next to Slughorn, and one unfortunately next to me.

It came as no surprise to me when Blaise slipped in beside me without a word, I ignored his presence as best I could, barely touching the food, and making little effort to involve myself in conversation. Socialising for the sake of mutual benefit should’ve come naturally to me, but the way my family was structured, and it’s well known history was enough to stop me having to force myself into situations like these. Clearly I wasn’t the only one, Blaise hadn’t involved himself particularly either, and had barely focused on the situation, so as luck would have it, he turned to me instead – in an attempt to make it look like we were both getting something out of the evening. 

“I hear you don’t wish to be here,” he murmured just loud enough for me to hear, but quiet enough that the rest of the group went on oblivious, “what gave you that impression?” I replied sarcastically, “my general lack of interest?” he rolled his eyes, “no, just the grapevine,” it was my turn to roll my eyes, just as Sluggy turned to me. “and what about you Miss y/l/n?” I stared at him for a moment in utter confusion, much to Blaise’s amusement, I slapped his arm under the table as Sluggy repeated the question, “I hear you are quite the dab hand with defence against the dark arts, and potions,” I smiled politely, noticing the annoyingly amused smile on Blaise’s face. 

“ummm, yes, defence against the dark arts,” I agreed quietly, I’d had more than enough practice what with my father being a high ranking death eater, a fact that everyone around the table was no doubt aware of. My eyes flitted around the various faces, the boy who lived, the brightest witch of her age, the Carrow twins – no idea what they were doing, a few faces I didn’t recognise, and Cormac McLaggen, the golden boy of Gryffindor – quidditch player and favoured bachelor. 

“are you planning to work for the ministry?” my attention snapped back to the conversation in hand, and I smirked across at Sluggy, “work for the ministry? I'm not killing myself for a bunch of twerps and tosspots,” eyebrows around the table rose, none less than Zabini, Sluggy, and Potter, “so what will you do?” Sluggy asked, clearly, I was that interesting, “I am undecided,” I replied coldly. People aren’t really my thing. “very Slytherin subjects,” he stated undeterred by my clear lack of interest in the conversation, “very,” I replied coolly, wishing he would move on to someone else. 

Sluggy nodded finally taking the hint, before moving onto Blaise for the inquisition to continue, crossing my legs, I made sure to kick my heel slightly into Zabini’s leg, smiling sweetly when he turned to me, “you did that on purpose,” he hissed, I shrugged nonchalantly, “so what if I did Zabini? What are you going to do about it? Tell Sluggy?” he smirked, a typical smirk that I had seen on his face one too many times, that automatically had my fists clenching to smack it back off, “oh don’t worry,” he murmured smirking placing his hand on my wrist, and uncurling my fists, “I’ll find a way to get even,” and I didn’t doubt for a moment that he would. 

For a moment I completely forget his grip on my wrist, and shrugged it off a minute too late, as the smirk on his face widened, “you can say what you like to that dopey sister of yours, but we both know how you feel about me.” I glared turning to him, making sure to look him dead in the eye, “and you can say whatever you feel like about my sister, but it doesn’t make it true. And as for how I feel about you Zabini, the only feeling I remotely have for you is absolute despise,” his eyebrow rose, “for a book worm I was expecting hate,” I turned to face him again – ignoring everyone else at the table, “hate is a strong word Zabini,” he smirked again, “you do like me,” I scoffed, turning away, ensuring my hair flicked properly in his face. 

The dinner continued in much the same way it had started, I gave up with most of the people on the table and instead spoke to Hermione for the duration as Harry was somewhat side tracked with being the ‘chosen one’ by Sluggy. Hermione told me about her muggle life, and various muggle songs, “if you want, me and Ginny could meet you next time, so you don’t have to walk on your own,” I glanced behind me to where Blaise was listening, smiling at Hermione I accepted, “I would love that, the dungeons aren’t the nicest place to walk from,” I told her, she smiled, just as Sluggy decided to talk to us as a group again, 

“I would like to see you all again this time next week, along with Miss Weasley,” he offered a smile to Harry and Hermione, “and thank you all for coming, I'm sure we will be able to make significant progress.” I coughed quietly attempting to hide my laughter, Zabini caught my wrist under the table, stopping me immediately, Sluggy glanced across at us worriedly, “are you feeling ok, Miss y/l/n?” I nodded, “yes professor, I'm fine,” he smiled sympathetically, I rolled my eyes the second he had turned away from me, and fixed Zabini with a look that would have frozen even the strongest warrior. His return? A sickly-sweet smile. 

Glowering at him out of the corner of my eye, I quickly pulled back my wrist, ignoring the smirk he shot my way, “same time next week,” Sluggy said still smiling, “you don’t want to miss curfew,” the few members of the group who weren’t Slytherin smiled before hurrying out of the door, including Harry and Hermione. I slowly began to follow them, but of course, I didn’t get that far, “Miss y/l/n, Mr Zabini, a word please,” I groaned, before turning back to face Sluggy with the sweetest smile I could muster, “I wanted to forewarn you, as two of my best students, from next week you will be going into pairs based on academic capability, I didn’t mention it to the rest of the group, as I feel it is likely the two of you will be most successful.” 

I clutched my clutch tightly, wondering how easy a silent spell to make him disappear would be, Blaise smiled, and nudged me to do the same, as we turned away I caught a look in Sluggy’s eye, and it did not fill me with joy, “maybe so,” he muttered under his breath as we walked out of the room. Ignoring Blaise, I began the walk back to our common room, several paces ahead of him, “I don’t know why you are in such a hurry y/l/n,” he called out from behind me, I continued to ignore him, pulling my wand out of my clutch, “it wasn’t that bad, was it?” he asked slinging his arm over my shoulder having caught up with me in several strides. 

I glared up at him, debating on cursing him, “don’t even bother cursing me, it’s your record that it goes on,” I shrugged off his shoulder, walking ahead of him again, down to the dungeons and up to our painting. “are you coming?” I asked, he smirked slightly, “I was enjoying the view, it’s not often I see you in a dress and heels,” I turned away for a moment and muttered a few curse words before turning back to face him, “well I suppose with the Slug Club around, you should start getting used to it,” he smirked as we both ignored the complaints of our portrait at having to wait for us to stop talking and enter the common room, 

“I suppose I should.” He replied, muttering the password before walking into the common room, I followed behind him, but the second I entered the common room, I glanced around, my brother had a face on, and I had learnt over the years that that was never a good thing. “were you just as the Slug Club?” he asked immediately catching me, I nodded silently staring at him confused as he dragged us over into a quiet corner of the common room, “when did you last speak to Dia?” I looked at him questioningly, “before I left, I asked her to get me out of the Slug Club, but she wouldn’t, I put a charm on her book, and got ready and left.”

He stared up at the ceiling, “well you should know she told dad that she has a boyfriend, who she intends to marry,” a small laugh slipped through my lips, “Dia has a boyfriend? My commiserations to the man,” I noticed the serious look in his eyes, “I'm serious y/n, dad hit the roof,” I shrugged, dad had a short temper at the best of times, “well who is it?” he rolled his eyes, “Weasley,” I looked at him for a moment, “well I hate to point it out but there are a lot of them, you are gonna have to be a bit more specific,” he sighed shrugging, “Percy Weasley,” my mouth dropped open, “Percy Weasley? Dia wants to marry him!?!” he nodded silently, 

“dad is going to go damn mental,” he nodded again, “I suspect there is already a howler on the way.” The thought of another howler wasn’t a pleasant one, all of us had received a howler on more than one occasion from our parents, and they took great delight in making them as loud as they possibly could. “how was the Slug Club?” Stefan asked, manoeuvring us over to two empty armchairs that were in the furthest corner of the room, “could have gone better to be honest, I don’t get why everyone’s so happy about it, it is painfully uncomfortable, and I was stuck next to Zabini,” Stefan’s face fell, his eyes darting over to where Zabini and Malfoy were sat several metres away, also in a corner talking quietly.

“how bad was it?” I shrugged, “I expect I'm going to get pranked within the next week,” his eyes expanded quickly darting back to Zabini, “if he so much as even tries it, I’ll…” I smiled gently, resting a hand on his arm, “Stef its fine, as long as he doesn’t go overboard, I’ll just get revenge,” he sighed shaking his head, “what did you do?” I shrugged again, “I may have ever so slightly kicked him with my heel,” he groaned, “between you and Dia, what the hell am I gonna do?” the common room was beginning to filter out as we continued talking, until just us, and Zabini and Malfoy were left. 

“I suppose I ought to go to bed,” I mutter hugging Stefan quickly, before making my way across the common room, only to have my path blocked by a very smug Zabini. “don’t think for a minute y/l/n, that I won’t get even,” I stared up at him, ignoring my quickening heart beating, “like I said Zabini, I have no doubt that you won’t.” I shoved past him and up to our dormitory, the glint and smirk still covering his face. 

I had no doubt that he wouldn’t get even in some way.


	2. Revenge is Sweet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wasn’t wrong about him getting even.
> 
> *there is explicit swearing in this chapter - ignore it if you don't like it :)

I wasn’t wrong about him getting even.

Having climbed out of the shower, my hair still wrapped up from washing it, I adjusted my deep green bralette, and my pj shorts. Rubbing my hair in the towel, I removed it, only to stare at the mirror in utter shock, pulling open the door to our dorm, I watched as Pansy hurried in, “Blaise Zabini is fucking dead,” I growled attempting to rub the deep green that had now dyed my hair out of it, Pansy stared in shock, “what the hell?” she asked grabbing my shampoo and conditioner, 

“that bastard,” I growled under my breath, watching from the corner of my eye as she put both bottles into the bin, “you can use mine,” I nodded offering a thankful smile – or as thankful as I could be when it came to the situation, my hair was of average length, and usually black, but no, even black hair couldn’t mask the deep green that had taken to my hair that would rival Medusa’s.

Storming out of the bathroom, I grabbed my hoodie, not bothering to do it up, I pulled on my Ugg boots and cast a quick drying spell on my hair, “if anyone needs me, I'll be screaming at a certain Zabini,” I stated to no one in particular, grabbing my wand off my nightstand. The water outside of the window was as dark and ferocious as my mood, without hesitation I walked across to Blaise’s dormitory, muttering the spell to stop the stairs reversing, and kicked open the door without a second thought – self-defences classes had come in useful after all – and there are times a door handle is irrelevant. 

Pushing past the boys staring at me in shock, I stormed over to Blaise’s bed, which was unsurprisingly one of the furthest from the door, probably so he could get the pleasure of watching me storm in, “you are going to tell me how to reverse this right now,” I demanded stopping at the end of his bed, watching him leisurely put down his book, before glancing up at me smirking, “you’re looking a little green there,” he declared smugly while I glared at him, he continued to smirk adding, “I’d say we are just about even, and you get to show off your Slytherin pride – you should thank me,” ignoring the ways his eyes flicked down to my bralette, I stalked around to the side of the bed closest to him and placed my wand up against his neck.

“you are going to tell me Zabini, I’ve used forbidden spells before and I'm not afraid to use them again, in fact I’ll use them on you quite happily, start talking,” I ordered him angrily, “you know, I’ve forgotten,” he replied after a short pause, still smirking, “I'm serious Zabini, how do I reverse it?” he shrugged again still smirking, ignoring his smirk, I pulled the book out of his hand and tossed it somewhere behind me, hearing it land with a thud, “I kicked you with my heel you bloody weasel, I didn’t sleep with your best friend!”

the smirk on his face told me he was going to be no use, and he was clearly enjoying the view of me in shorts and a bralette slightly too much, turning away from him, I stormed over to Malfoy’s bed, “Malfoy, make yourself useful for once in your life, tell me how I reverse this or you can join Zabini on my hit list,” Malfoy shrugged a similar smirk on his lips, “Malfoy,” I growled, he shrugged again, “Zabini is the one who did it, don’t look at me,” I rolled my eyes, “fucking useless,” I muttered, “don’t think this is over Zabini, I’ll show you even,” I told him, exiting the dorm, slamming the door behind me. So loudly that the door hinges rattled.

“successful?” Pansy asked as I re-entered our dorm, “what do you think?” I replied, she shook her head sighing, “well you aren’t going down to breakfast with this tomorrow morning, we’ll fix it,” she assured me, casting a straighten spell on my hair, “if we can’t dye it back, then we’ll at least work with what we have,” Paige muttered taking out her coveted book of spells for hair and makeup. Out of all the girls in Slytherin, it was no secret that she was by far the most gifted with hair and makeup, and it had led many girls to desperately try and befriend her in the hopes that she would help them. Which ultimately led to their failure, Paige was incredibly loyal, and stuck with our dorm for friends, as we weren’t in it for her skills. 

She flicked through the pages, while Alice sat next to her, “if you are stuck with green hair we can try and fade it into your natural hair, and then we can extend it,” Paige explained, while Pansy dried to find a piece of my natural hair. “just do whatever it takes,” I muttered, “I'm not going down to the great hall tomorrow morning with this hair, Zabini would get too much pleasure out of that,” the girls shook their head, “I've got it,” Paige declared, gripping the book tightly, “we are going to make it a lot longer, that way the green will look like highlights not just fully green, and then we curl it so the green is less obvious, and we’ll try to put it back to black, leaving in small pieces of green,” the girls nodded diving around the room for various hair instruments. 

“thanks for this, guys,” I said smiling at them, as I reached for my textbook while Paige settled behind me on the bed, beginning to cast spells to try and turn my hair back to black. “it’s fine, we’ll help with your revenge,” Pansy replied smirking sitting down with Alice on her bed next to mine, “I cannot wait to see his face tomorrow when you arrive looking stunning,” Alice added smirking, “that is going to be the least of my worries when I get my hands on him without an audience,” I muttered darkly, peeling off my hoodie and kicking my boots off under my bed, I’d have to clean out under there at some point, I hadn’t cleared it in several terms. 

“are you going to curse him?” Alice asked offering my her curse spell book, “oh no, I'm going to wreck something that matters to him,” I replied reaching for my rarely used red lipstick and tossing it in her direction, her eyebrow rose, before a smirk covered her face, “oh I can’t wait to see this in action.” I nodded smirking across at her, “ok guys, so we have a slight problem,” Paige stated, my head whipped around to face her, “so what Blaise neglected to mention is that you can’t charm this out, I’ve seen it before, basically you need to wait 24 hours for the spell to weaken enough,” my scream could probably be heard in Zabini’s room, and he would no doubt be smirking. 

“you mean I'm stuck with this bullshit for at least 24 hours!?!” Paige held her hands up in surrender, “basically, the spell has to weaken, I can still extend it and curl it, and because you don’t shampoo your roots it does look like highlights, but yeah, 24 hours.” I groaned grabbing a mirror, the green was only just beginning to fade in my hair – by less than a shade, it wasn’t going to be dark enough to blend in with my natural hair, even if we waited until morning, “just go ahead with the extensions, and let’s see where we end up,” I murmured gripping my fists, Blaise Zabini, I hope you are ready, because you aren’t getting away with this. 

Several hours later the green is just about subtle enough that you wouldn’t notice it from the moon, “thanks Paige,” I hugged her tightly, the extensions definitely helped, it made the green look more like highlights, and increased my hair length, “good makeup tomorrow, and he is going to be in a pool of tears,” Pansy stated as we gathered together in a group hug. “where’s Neffie?” Alice asked suddenly glancing around the room for our final dormmate, “I do believe she is making her feelings known,” Paige replied smirking as Neffie appeared in the doorway,

“you look great, all things considered,” she stated to me, “I am pleased to report that Zabini is going to be in a less humour filled mood tomorrow.” She smirked not elaborating as she sat on her bed, “you should hear what y/n has planned for him,” Paige told her smirking, Neffie laughed, “poor Zabini, he isn’t going to know what hit him,” we settled into our beds. If he thinks we are even remotely even, he has another think coming. 

Merlin, Blaise Zabini was going to be in for one hell of a shock…

…….

Following morning

The green was still there irritatingly enough, and it took several spells to curl my hair enough to make it look like highlights, “fucking knobhead,” I swore touching up my makeup while the rest of the girls put on their shoes. “you gonna finish that at any point today?” Pansy teased as I slipped on my shoes, putting down my makeup brush, “I'm just making sure he gets a shock,” I replied smiling, the four other girls smirked each adjusting their robes, “I can’t wait to see his face,” Neffie added still not having told us what she did, “neither can I,” I muttered standing up and smoothing down my skirt. 

Pansy offered me a smile, linking my arm with hers as I stuffed my wand into her pocket, we walked in the middle of the group down to the great hall, Neffie striding ahead, clearly wanting to see the results of her handiwork, while the rest of us traipsed behind her begrudgingly. “do we actually have to have breakfast?” I muttered to Pansy, “it’s going to be fine, he’s already down there anyway, so he’ll get a shock out of this, not you,” she assured me as we approached the great hall, the doors flung wide open.

We moved to the Slytherin table in silence, Zabini and Malfoy indeed were already sat down, and looked up expectantly when they saw us enter, I bit the inside of my mouth, making sure Pansy was closer to Zabini than I was. Flicking back my hair, I poured a glass of pumpkin juice, ignoring the various foods in front of me, but of course, a quiet breakfast was never going to be achieved, “still looking a bit green there, y/l/n,” Zabini stated smugly from where he was sat, “did you find your present this morning, Zabini?” 

Neffie asked smugly, watching the smirk drop from his face and instead turn into a look of anger, “yes Luxen, I did. And none of us appreciated it,” she smiled sweetly in return, “well we didn’t appreciate having our best friend have her hair dyed unceremoniously,” she replied turning away and forgetting his existence as she tucked into her breakfast. “nice hair, y/n,” Higgs commented slipping into the seat next to me, “let’s just say it wasn’t planned,” I muttered begrudgingly, noticing Zabini’s smirk return to his face, “yes, so I hear, still, it suits you, but you suit everything,” I laughed watching my brother slide in opposite Higgs, “she suits everything,” Stefan rolled his eyes teasingly.

“still, how did you get green hair?” I rolled my eyes, gripping my fists tightly under the table, “let’s just say it wasn’t planned,” I repeated angrily, glaring in Zabini and Malfoy’s direction. Both boys followed my eyeline, before their faces broke out into smiles, “oh yes this is just bloody hilarious, laugh it up why don’t you,” I muttered grouchily, sipping the juice in front of me, “I mean it kind of is,” Higgs muttered, I elbowed him gently in the ribs, smiling when he glared at me. “want me to hex him?” Stefan offered, crunching down on a piece of toast, 

“would rather you didn’t waste your time, I’ll get my own back,” I promised, glaring at Zabini again. Who turned just in time to meet my glare, meeting it with a smug smile, “just you wait,” I muttered sipping the remnants of my juice, thankfully I didn’t have potions next, and instead made my way to DADA, Snape rose an eyebrow at my hair, I shook my head, the glare still fixed to my face, I wasn’t put against the same useless student again, or Malfoy, I was put against Zabini – something I suspected Snape was very smug over. At least it was an excuse to hex the boy.

“fancy seeing you, y/l/n,” he greeted me as I stood ahead of him, “don’t push it Zabini, I'm already mad at you,” I seethed, drawing my wand in front of me, the duel took ages, with us firing various spells at each other, my new long hair flying around my face as I created shield after shield. Growing tired of his smug smirk, my fingers itched to use a forbidden spell, but I couldn’t risk being caught using one, so instead I settled for walking up to him with the shield in front of me, and firing several spells at him in close proximity. He towered above me, but I refused to be intimidated by him, and instead settled for numerous spells of hexes and charms. 

His surprise made him an easy target, as once again someone had been enjoying me being in front of him, a little too much, and had little time to put up any sheilds. By the time Snape called time, neither of us had won, and I was still glaring at his smug expression, walking away from him, I settled against the cool stone walls, letting the cold calm my anger, I had always hated how my anger could flip my personality, it was too much like my father, and he knew how I hated him for it, yet he still pressed all of us to become Death Eaters. There was clearly no chance of that for Dia now, she would be shunned, but my brother and I, were a different type, and would no doubt be pestered about it now relentlessly. 

“a penny for your thoughts,” Draco had settled down next to me, I ignored him, “the hair looks good,” he added smirking, I turned to face him, a glare etched into my face, “if you do not shut up, I will punch you,” I threatened, turning back to watch the final duel, between a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor, “and there was me thinking I’d be in your good books,” I scoffed refusing to face him as I spoke. “just because Zabini dyed my hair, doesn’t mean you are off the hook, you are both responsible,” he laughed rolling his eyes, “I'm sure you can discuss that with him at the next Slug Club, he tells me you aren’t overly fond on it,” I ignored him for a moment before responding, 

“well then he knows I won’t want to sit next to him.” with that, I stood up, pushing myself off the wall, and collected my bag, ignoring the rest of the class who faded into the background as they tidied away their own books, me and Pansy walked out of the door without a backward glance, and instead hurried towards our next lesson. “I want to get revenge on him before tonight,” I told her quietly as settled in the back of charms, she nodded silently, “lunch,” I nodded silently, “I’ll get the necessaries, Neffie might have to distract anyone in there,” she nodded slipping a small book out of her bag and towards me, “Paige said those spells should help you manage the dye.”

I smiled gratefully, sliding the book into my bag, ignoring the curious glances from other Slytherins who had no doubt heard about the green that ran through my hair. We waited until lunch before we made our way to the common room, “I’ll grab the lipstick, Paige and Alice are on their way, Neffie is outside watching the dorm,” I muttered to Pansy, she nodded grabbing a red lipstick of her own. We left our dorm, meeting the rest of them outside, “I'm thinking a bit of revenge,” Pansy muttered smirking, “the dorm is empty,” Neffie explained as we walked across to the dorm, opening the door and slipping inside silently. 

“what’s so special about this lipstick anyway?” Neffie asked leaning in the door frame, “my brother in his infinite wisdom used it to write on my mirror, it took four months to come off, and takes at least double that to get it out of fabric. He ruined my hair, I'm ruining his clothes,” I replied crouching down next to his trunk, and slowly rifling through his dress robes for the white-collar shirts, which I extracted smoothing them out on the bed, “does it come off lips easily?” Paige asked as her and Alice emptied the contents of Blaise’s trunk under his bed, “yep,” I replied smiling, “what about Draco?” Pansy asked, “he can be collateral damage for being so bloody useless,” I replied from where I had applied the lipstick and made sure to leave several lip marks on each collar. 

Good luck cleaning that out Zabini.

Neffie smirked from her position in the doorway, “I cannot wait to hear the screams,” I smirked from where I was sat, “we better triple lock our dorm once they discover this,” Pansy smiled having finished emptying Draco’s trunk as well, having moved his books and clothes around, “hide and seek the books,” Alice stated laughing. Standing up I put each shirt folded up back in the trunk, “why bother? He wrecked your hair!” Paige asked angrily watching as I delicately folded each one up, “exactly, he wrecked my hair, I’ve wrecked his shirt, anyone got some parchment?” Neffie tossed me a piece, which I wrote a simple note on. 

‘now we are even’ 

Pansy raised an eyebrow, “he’ll know it was you,” I shrugged, “he would know anyway, who else would want to ruin something of his?” she shrugged in agreement, their two beds left in an utter mess, and their trunks all but empty. “job well done,” Neffie commented as we walked back to our own dorm room, while they reclined on the beds, I washed off the last of the lipstick, tossing the lipstick into a cupboard, before returning to the main room, “I think a locking spell on the door may be needed,” Neffie muttered as we left our room for afternoon lessons. But not without triple locking the door first.

We returned to our dorm room after dinner, with one intention, to get me ready for the Slug Club, my heels had ‘mysteriously’ disappeared – which of course had nothing to do with my loathing of heels. “how do you not have heels!?!?” Pansy groaned exasperated, running around the room as Paige rolled her eyes, who was curling my hair until the curls fell down my back, Alice rolled her own eyes theatrically, reclining on her bed with her textbook in hand, I sighed not having bothered starting on my makeup, as Pansy rearranged my pale yellow dress for the tenth time in ten minutes. “it’s fine Pans,” I told her, reaching for my makeup bag, and beginning the task of making my face look less tired than I felt.

The hammering on the door that we presumed to be Blaise and Draco went ignored until it eventually stopped, and we heard their footsteps walk away, swearing bitterly. Twenty minutes later and I was sliding into my dress, while Pansy had forced Neffie into helping her find my heels – she stood no chance of finding them. “you know that dress makes you look like the beauty,” Neffie commented, “so who is the beast?” I rolled my eyes silently, as the girls all shot a look towards me their eyebrows raised questioningly. “Zabini maybe?” Pansy teased, I rolled my eyes again, “no,” I muttered, seeing his face wasn’t going to be the highlight of my day.

A quiet knock at the door, stopped all of us in our tracks, the door opened a small first year stood there, “can we help you?” Pansy asked coldly, stopping her hunt for my heels, “there are two Gryffindor girls outside the portrait asking for y/n,” the girl explained quietly, “ok, I’ll be there in a minute,” I told her watching the door shut, as I grabbed a pair of ballet flats, “I’ll go and sort this, and then I’ll be back.” I hurried out of the dorm room, and down through the common room, ignoring the curious eyes that followed me, and out to the portrait where Ginny and Hermione were stood, “hey, thanks for coming to meet me, but I'm not ready as I’ve ‘lost’ my heels,” I explained, “just go on ahead, but please save me a seat,” the pair nodded smiling, 

“if you want some heels, I have some,” Hermione offered, I shook my head quickly “I haven’t lost them, I've relocated them, I cannot stand heels,” the pair laughed just as our portrait piped up, “oh shut up, they are friends of mine,” I ignored the voice, as another one turned up behind me, “Weasley, Granger, did you get a bit lost? This is the snake pit, not the lion’s den,” Blaise asked from behind me, “I’ll meet you there,” I murmured offering a small smile, they nodded walking off, I turned around to walk in the direction of my dorm but was stopped by Zabini’s hand catching hold of my wrist.

“you know y/l/n, it’s the darndest thing, all of my dress shirts have been covered in red lipstick,” I shrugged nonchalantly, “and what does that have to do with me Zabini?” his eyebrow rose challengingly, “maybe because the note said it was revenge, and I can only think of one person who would want revenge on me at this precise moment,” I shrugged off his wrist, “that sounds like a you problem Zabini,” I walked back up the dorm room, where Pansy smirked producing a pair of yellow heels, “I won’t listen to any excuses, put them on, and then hurry, you are going to be late,” I groaned but complied slipping into the pumps, which with a flick of a wand fitted perfectly. 

I grabbed my wand, and slid it into my clutch again, “thank you for your help,” I smiled appreciatively, “and Blaise already asked,” their faces dropped anxiously, “that explains the knocking,” Neffie muttered grudgingly, “will you be ok?” Paige asked, I nodded smiling, “I’ve dealt with far worse than Blaise Zabini,” the four of them shared a silent look, “but you haven’t felt like you do about those guys,” Alice stated quietly, I shrugged, “I’ll get over it,” I replied waving to them as I walked quietly down the steps into the common room, and then out towards the tunnel.

Ignoring the footsteps behind me, I exited the common room, and began the walk to the Slug Club, “y/l/n!” Blaise called out behind me, I could practically hear the smirk in his voice as I continued on, not turning to face him. Arriving outside the Slug Club, I made no hesitation to slide into the seat that Ginny and Hermione had saved for me, “thank you,” I muttered quietly, watching unhappily as Zabini slid in beside me again. The table was already half full by the time we arrived, and a few moments later everyone else had arrived too, Sluggy smiled greeting all of us again, 

“so I mentioned this to a couple of you last time, but in future you are going to be in pairs with someone who is as capable as you are.” I waited with bated breath before Sluggy announced mortifyingly my partner, he could have put me with a Hufflepuff, but no, “Miss y/l/n, and Mr Zabini,” my face dropped several centimetres, before I tried to collect myself, and smile perfectly – my brother and sister had taught me that to be a good embodiment of Slytherin – to be good embodiment of a Y/L/N, the perfect smile for all occasions is a necessity. 

Begrudgingly, I turned to Blaise, who unsurprisingly had a smug smirk on his face, “don’t even say it Zabini,” I muttered as everyone else tucked into the food happily, I simply moved the cutlery around, suddenly having lost my appetite. “Miss y/l/n, I meant to talk to you,” Sluggy addressed me, I was glad at an excuse to stop looking at the food, but the eyes that flashed to me were not as welcome, “I believe your father is doing well,” I shrugged nonchalantly, “you’d have to talk to him,” he smiled graciously undeterred, “and of course you are the most Slytherin out of your siblings,” out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Blaise start paying attention. “would hardly say that professor,” I muttered, attempting to stop his probing, 

“but of course you are, you are best at potions and of course defence, I believe neither of your siblings are particularly talented in either of those departments,” I shrugged, he was right of course – clearly he researched his students, my sister was a Hufflepuff in Slytherin uniform as far as our parents were concerned, no Slytherin should be good at herbology to the level that she was. My brother was a slight improvement, being gifted in quidditch and on the team, as well as being good at transfiguration, though that was also more Gryffindor than Slytherin. Making me the ideal child, because I was successful with the Slytherin subjects of potions and defence. The golden child as friends of the family liked to call me.

“do you have a point to this professor?” I asked quietly, talking about my siblings always put me on edge, “but of course Miss y/l/n, I happen to know of someone who would be excellent in furthering your talents and ambitions,” I sighed internally, apparently too much research if he knew about my ambitions. “and what ambition would that be, professor?” I asked sweetly, my fists gripped under the table, “I hear that you are particularly interested in defence against the dark arts abroad,” my fists gripped even tighter, so much for privacy. “I don’t know where you heard that professor, but I would like to make you aware that is not the case, I am undecided,” I informed him grudgingly, my fists stills gripped tightly, my nails digging into the skin on my palm. 

I stared level eye with the professor until he moved on to Hermione about her family, my commiserations to her, it wasn’t like he could ask very much about mine without discussing one death eater or another. My fists were gripped so tightly that I hadn’t noticed until a warm hand slowly uncurled them, sliding their fingers in-between mine and resting their palm against mine to stop me repeating the action, I stared at Blaise questioningly out of the side of my eye, but he refused to look at me, and instead stared ahead, pretending to pay attention to the conversation. 

“and Mr Zabini, how is your mother?” Blaise’s grip on my hand tightened at the mention of his family before the professor backtracked, “I am so sorry Miss y/l/n, I forgot to ask, how is your mother?” my grip tightened again, this time on Blaise’s hand, “I believe she is well professor,” I replied curtly releasing my tight grip on his hand, and noticing Blaise’s grip tighten instead as the professor continued to ask probing questions. My only amusement came from Cormac McLaggen who took great pleasure in informing the professor that his family weren’t overly close, effectively uninviting the professor from whatever he had been hoping for. 

The end of the dinner finished in the same way as the first, “I hope you all like your partners, you’ll be spending a significant amount of time with them,” the professor announced, a cheery smile on his lips. I dropped Blaise’s hand immediately, tucking my hands back into my lap as the professor continued to drone on, when he at long last finished talking, there were only several minutes till curfew, so we dispersed quickly, with no chance of being held back.

I muttered a spell to ease the pain of my heels, before I walked quickly towards the common room, which as per usual, was at the opposite end of the sodding building. Whoever assigned the various common room spaces was probably watching and laughing at my pain as I all but ran back to the common room, Zabini being as tall as he was, was able to make up many of my steps in long strides, and in no time was ahead of me, catching the portrait, I slowed my walking to where he held it open. “thanks Zabini,” I muttered slipping through the portrait, the common room was all but empty, and I made my way to sit in front of the fire in the arm chair, I didn’t want to talk to anyone, and instead rested my head on the side of the sofa next to the armchair. 

A moment later I was joined by my sister, who slid into the chair, the common room empty, finally a moment of privacy. “how was it?” she asked quietly, moving strands of my hair out of my face, “did you do anything about the Z situation?” I shook my head silently, “why not?” she asked carefully, “because I’ve been through it once already, he enjoys winding me up, playing with my emotions, and then doing the same to every other girl in Slytherin, I'm not willing to be used for that, I can’t be being treated like that, it destroys me. He’s the Slytherin prince’s right hand man, he can have his pick of any girl in Slytherin and he knows it, he just doesn’t make it obvious.”

I stated quietly, no matter how angry I was at Dia for not telling me, she was the only person I ever truly opened up to, she was always my first port of call, then my dorm mates – not to say they were lesser, but Dia had grown up with me, she knew where I was coming from, and she knew the full extent of onus that was on me from our family. “don’t let him destroy you,” she murmured stroking my hair, “you look absolutely beautiful, and if he can’t see that, then he is an idiot,” I offered her a weak smile. “and Sluggy started asking all about our families and then announced my ambition to the whole group,” 

I muttered staring into the fire, watching the flames dance quietly, “he did what?” the outrage was clear in her voice, “it’s fine Dia,” I murmured resting my hand on hers, “I don’t think he did it on purpose, probably just wanted to work out what he could get from each of us being there,” she growled quietly, “that little slime ball,” she muttered, I smiled softly, sitting up.

“I better to go to my dorm, before they all start wondering where I am,” I muttered standing up, “and Dia, you and Percy make a cute couple,” she smiled, staying where she was, I began walking towards my dorm, but as I did, I could have sworn I noticed a tall figure stood just a few metres from me. But Hogwarts has magic, maybe it was just my imagination, shrugging it off I walked up to the dorm room, where four girls were sat expectantly at the end of their beds, “it wasn’t worth it,” I told them shutting the door and pushing the lock over on it. 

Their faces all simultaneously dropped at this news, “oh yeah, and Zabini held my hand for almost the duration, and no, I didn’t ask,” I told them disappearing into the bathroom where I showered quickly changing into my pjs. Walking back into the room I smiled at their expectant curious faces, “Sluggy was being creepy,” I explained climbing into my bed, “why was he holding your hand!?!” Neffie asked, I shrugged, “ask him,” I snuggled under my duvet, “are you gonna go with him to the Christmas party?” Alice pestered, “not a chance in hell,” I replied ignoring the rest of their questions, burying my head into my pillow with the promise of sleep.

The Christmas party. Slughorn’s Christmas party. Crap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2!!! I'm going to post all the chapters today so there isn't going to be any real suspense, hopefully you liked this chapter!


	3. The Christmas Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Christmas party was weighing heavily on my mind from the moment I woke up the following day, I had less than a week to find a date or turn up looking like a loner who forgot to find a date. Fantastic. I answered a couple of the girls’ questions about the meeting before, but my mind wouldn’t waver from the subject, the green still tinted my hair, and unlike Paige’s prediction, had not lessened in 24 hours, heck it hadn’t in a week.

The Christmas party was weighing heavily on my mind from the moment I woke up the following day, I had less than a week to find a date or turn up looking like a loner who forgot to find a date. Fantastic. I answered a couple of the girls’ questions about the meeting before, but my mind wouldn’t waver from the subject, the green still tinted my hair, and unlike Paige’s prediction, had not lessened in 24 hours, heck it hadn’t in a week. 

I groaned, I went to tie it up before remembering that it was effectively a shield from people, I let it drop back around my shoulders, “so who are you going to ask?” Pansy asked from her bed as we continued to get ready for breakfast, “probably not gonna go,” I muttered running a hand through my hair, she stopped what she was doing and stared at me for a moment. “you cannot be serious,” she stated, having dropped her hair brush on the bed in front of her as she stared at me, I shrugged casually, “I don’t want to go anyway,” the three remaining girls also dropped what they were doing, and stared at me in complete silence, I ignored this, “are you coming for breakfast or what?”

They all looked at me curiously, the shock not having disappeared from their eyes, “but you hate breakfast,” Pansy stated slowly, “yeah but I'm not about to get shouted at by Snape for skipping,” I replied equally slowly, with that reminder all four of them sprung back into action, barely giving me a chance to grab my wand before they were hurrying out of the door. “maybe she just wants to see a certain someone,” Neffie teased as we walked towards the great hall, “it might be early, but I won’t hesitate to curse you,” I told her firmly as we entered the great hall. 

None of Blaise’s dorm was there yet, so we settled down in our small cluster, the seat next to me empty, I was starting to sense a running theme. As per usual, I ignored the food, settling on a cup of coffee, which added ice cubes to, chilling it down immediately, “you need to go to the party,” Pansy stated, resuming her ideas on why I should go while the rest of them nodded along, “if it matters that much, I’ll just take Stefan,” I stated as the bench next to me dipped, Blaise and Draco. Just what the conversation needed, “you cannot take your brother to the Christmas party!” I rolled my eyes sipping on my coffee, “you need to take an actual date,” Neffie nodded in agreement.

“what does it matter, I'm not planning on going,” I muttered pushing the coffee away from me, “Higgs, back me up on this,” Paige stated as Higgs stood behind me, “she needs a date for the Christmas party, but is refusing to go,” Higgs shrugged, “why does she need a date? She could just go alone,” I smirked across at Paige who returned to her breakfast glaring, “well Higgs, if I needed a date that desperately would you go with me?” I asked, turning to face him, turning a blind eye to the raised eyebrows of Blaise and Draco, he laughed shaking his head, 

“I love you sweetie and you know that, but hell no, I'm not going anywhere even remotely close to Sluggy, my brother would kill me, besides, I hear someone is already bidding to take you to that thing anyway, and I'm not getting in his way,” he rubbed my shoulder comfortingly before walking off to the other end of the table where his friends were waiting for him. I groaned, resting my head on the table, “if I can’t get Higgs to go with me, then forget it, I'm not bloody going,” I grumbled, “well the guy could be really nice,” Alice suggested, I turned to face her, “the chances of that, are pretty bloody slim. Knowing my luck, it will end up being someone like Goyle. I’ll give it a miss if it’s all the same to you.”

The four of them took great amusement in this statement, as I dropped my head back on to my arms on the table. There was no way I was going to go to that party, “mail comes tomorrow,” Pansy stated, I could already hear the smile in her voice, “got something coming?” Neffie asked, I smirked sitting up to face Pansy, “I don’t think you can package boys and get owls to drop them on your lap just yet,” she shook her head attempting to look serious, tossing a chip in my direction – which hit the table before it could reach me, “I will have you know I'm expecting a book,” Alice smirked deciding to join the new game of wind up Pansy, 

“a book of positions, Pans? For that boy?” she let out a laugh as a chip was tossed at her too. “will the pair of you shove it. Come on y/n, just go to the party, what’s the worst that can happen?” I sighed staring off into the distance, “several things come to mind,” I muttered under my breath, keeping my hands firmly in my lap, and keeping my eyes away from the two boys next to us. Pansy smirked, her eyebrow rose, “say it Parkinson and I will make it so that you have the body of a pug for the next week,” I threatened her suddenly glad that I had thought to pick up my wand before we arrived. 

The smile was evident on her lips as she turned away, and I was suddenly very glad, that I had mainly study periods, maybe I should’ve taken up quidditch, at least that way I would be able to clear my head. Thinking it over I remembered that today the skies would be clear, “I’ve got a free next, meet you in the library, I’ve got to do something first,” I muttered hurrying along to the quidditch field where I caught sight of the professor, a quick smile and I was allowed to go for a fly. Summoning my broom, the latest model at my parent’s request, I mounted it, and flew up above the quidditch stadium, 

it had been a long time since I had been on a broom, mainly because I hadn’t seen much point in focusing on quidditch when academics existed. The field was empty, so I did several circuits of it, glad to clear my head for five minutes of everything, I slowed to hover and noticed my brother on the ground, who joined me a moment later, “haven’t seen you on a broom in a while,” he stated, “I needed to clear my head,” he nodded slowly, “race you to the goalposts,” he smirked across at me, I rolled my eyes, he knew how competitive I was.

Nodding at him, we flew on the count of three, me beating him by a few seconds, “you know, you shouldn’t challenge me,” I told him, high fiving him as he stared at me in disbelief, “for someone who claims to hate flying as much as you do, you think you’d be a hell of a lot worse,” he stated as we descended to the ground and climbed off them. I shrugged, “it’s in my blood to be good when it comes to flying,” my eyes roamed the field for a moment before focusing on the figure of Zabini, “oh for Merlin’s sake,” I muttered under my breath, “right I am supposed to be doing some work, so I’ll be disappearing about now,” Stef nodded walking with me towards the castle, “y/l/n!” I groaned, turning to face Zabini, Stefan also turned his eyebrow rose at Zabini’s appearance, 

“why aren’t you on the team if you are so good at flying?” he asked, the instant smirk on Stefan’s face had me increasing my speed – in a poor attempt to get rid of them, but they both increased their walking speed, able to catch up with me in seconds and keep up easily, “I’ve told her hundreds of times,” Stefan’s smirk said it all, “if you can persuade her, go right ahead, she doesn’t listen to me,” I rolled my eyes as we approached the common room, “damn right I don’t listen to you. Your advice is atrocious,” before he could reply I disappeared up into the girls’ dorm and placed my broom back in my trunk, before shoving it under my bed. 

My quidditch abilities had always been kept under wraps, I didn’t want people telling me I should play, sure I knew about it – I knew I could be on the team, but I wasn’t particularly interested, and hadn’t been for some years – since our parents realised Stefan’s potential, it was his thing and I wasn’t about to intrude on it, especially not when I had no interest in it to begin with.

Exiting the dorm, I was surprised to note Zabini stood at the bottom of the stairs, “you are going to the library, right?” he asked, I ignored him, keeping a tight hold on my bag, “if you are so good at quidditch, why don’t you play?” I continued to ignore him, walking faster, but those damn long legs made it easy to keep up with me. “because I don’t like it,” I replied quietly, ignoring the curious glances of other houses at seeing the pair of us next to each other, “look Zabini, I don’t play just take that as an answer, because that is all you are getting,” he shrugged continuing to walk next to me, “did you want something?” I asked, he smirked shaking his head, 

“nope,” he replied smugly as we arrived outside of the library. None of my friends had arrived yet, so I took a seat far away from everyone else, dumping my bag on the table, I began emptying out the relevant pieces of parchment and books, noticing that Zabini had sat a couple of tables away. Deep joy. Deciding to ignore his existence, I opened up my various books and began studying. The rest of the day followed in much the same way, with my friends still hassling me to find a date for the party late into the night. I sighed climbing back into bed, “I’m not going,” I stated ignoring their various comments and complaints, I burrowed down under my duvet, strong in my resolve. 

If only certain other people had been too.

…………………………..

Following morning

The morning began with the same whinging and whining, “I'm not going!” I told them all firmly, letting my hair fall into its natural curls again, and huddling into my jumper, “come on y/n, it sounds fun,” I rolled my eyes as their comments continued the whole way down to the great hall, “I’ve said it already, and I’ll say it again,” I stated as we waked towards the great hall, “I'm not going.” We walked over to the Slytherin table, and I barely noticed who was next to me until I was suddenly next to Blaise, ignoring him completely, I took a glass of pumpkin juice, sipping it slowly as the conversation hummed around me. 

The owls soon entered dropping mail down on the tables, including Pansy’s book, “I told you, it’s a book of positions,” Alice stated smugly watching as Pansy clamped the book to her chest, refusing to allow anyone else so much as even a look at the packaging. I sighed managing to muster a laugh, just as an envelope dropped down in front of us, “it’s for y/n,” Neffie muttered handing it to me, “but I'm not expecting anything, if it’s a howler just pass it on over to Dia” I muttered, as Neffie pushed the envelope towards me insistently, “it’s for you,” turning it over I searched for any kind of stamp, but nothing was on it.

“do you want me to remove the charm on it?” Higgs asked from behind me, I nodded passing it to him silently, he removed the charm handing it back to me, “I don’t get it,” I muttered staring at the envelope in confusion, “my parents never write to me,” Higgs shrugged walking off, while the rest of the girls leaned in closely, “are you going to open it or not?” Pansy asked staring at the envelope eagerly. I rolled my eyes, breaking off the seal but there was no coat of arms on it, a single piece of card was inside, again without a coat of arms, and only small cursive handwriting:

Meet me at the astronomy tower at 5pm, and don’t worry, I don’t look a thing like Goyle

I turned the card over several times but nothing else was written on it, “creep,” I muttered stuffing it back into the envelope, “so?” Neffie asked leaning in, “so what?” I muttered back sipping my coffee as Alice and Paige gestured wildly to the envelope, “are you going to go?” I shrugged putting the mug back down. “if I feel like it,” I stated calmly shoving the envelope into my cloak pocket, “you aren’t even decided!?!” Pansy asked catching the attention of those around us, “no I'm not decided,” I muttered, though I knew what I would probably do. The rest of the day, my mind focused on nothing but the envelope and astronomy tower, I had decided that I would go, so come 4:45 I began to make my way up to the astronomy tower, my wand out in front of me the whole way. 

I had always hated the astronomy for its seclusion, it felt like hundreds of bad things could happen up there and no one would ever know any different. My hand shook slightly as I reached the viewing platform, my stomach felt physically sick as I gripped my wand tightly ahead of me. “I wasn’t convinced you were going to come,” a voice announced ahead of me, “well I did,” I muttered under my breath, slowly following round the tower until I was face to face with a tall figure. “so, I see,” Zabini replied, a small smug smile on the edge of his lips, “you gonna put your wand away?” I glowered at him, “it’s a precaution,” his eyebrow rose but he didn’t try to comment on it any further.

“is this a joke Zabini? Why did you want me to come up here?” he remained silent for a moment, staring out over the lake, “I wanted to talk to you,” he replied calmly without looking at me, “and that couldn’t have been done in the common room?” he smirked turning to me – let’s be honest, it was coming – “but it’s not private there, it is here,” he murmured walking closer to me, and standing in front of me, towering over me with his height. 

“get to the point Zabini, I had plans for tonight, and being up here wasn’t one of them,” I muttered, moving my wand to be down by my side, before sliding it into my pocket, he smirked, “I hear you still don’t have a date for Slughorn’s party,” I shrugged, “what of it? I'm not going anyway so it doesn’t matter,” he smirked again, “but it does matter. Sluggy would be disappointed if you didn’t go, and so would I,” I stared at him for a moment, feeling like someone had just cast a spell over me, he smirked at my rection, moving a piece of green hair out of my face, “get lost Zabini, I didn’t come here to have the rise taken out of me,” I stated glaring up at him.

“you think I'm joking?” he asked seriously, a light scoff escaping his lips, “I know you are,” he rolled his eyes, “Merlin you are stubborn,” he muttered, cupping my face in his hand, “are you going to try and tell me that when I do this, you don’t feel anything?” I ignored the feeling in the pit of my stomach, and shook my head, “liar,” I shut my eyes for a moment, before opening them again, and staring at the man in front of me. “I always thought you played with emotions, but now I'm absolutely sure of it. I don’t feel anything towards you Zabini, and you can say whatever you feel like, but I don’t,” I shrugged him off, turning away from him, I had told huge lies, but I couldn’t go through with it and admit that – not to him. 

I walked away from the viewing platform, and then in the general direction of the common room, but turning suddenly, I walked down a quiet corridor of Hogwarts that I knew was barely used and sat inside one of the windowsills. It was a spot that I had come to many times over my years, and it offered me some peace from everything else, resting my head on the cool glass, I sighed looking out over the lake. I had lied to his face, but I wasn’t about to admit that, and I couldn’t face telling my friends that I had shook him off, they knew how I felt, and they would be angry I hadn’t taken the opportunity. 

Slowly I sighed, running a hand through my black/green hair smiling, it certainly made my hair more interesting, getting up from where I had been sat, I wove my way down to the common room, glad to find that it was full, and slipped into the dorm, changing quickly into a black dress, the dress hugged the curves my mother had always told me to show. I stared at my various jewellery, pearl necklaces, emerald necklaces, I eventually selected a pearl necklace, and pearl earrings, deserting my rings entirely, I wiped my face bare of makeup, settling to fill in my eyebrows, and mascara, lipstick was hardly worth it. 

It may have been a party, but I wasn’t about to do anything special, and left my hair in its waves, I picked up my wand, not bothering with a clutch, and stared into the mirror, I had always despised the way I looked, it was too easy to be overshadowed, but today was a day I was thankful that I could disappear into the background, because I didn’t want to be noticed. Slipping back out of the dorm, I attempted to weave my way to the door, but of course. Stefan and Dia wound up in front of me, “care to explain why Zabini currently looks like he wants to end it?” I shrugged, “did you go to that meeting?” Dia asked, “how do you know about it?” Stefan shot her look, “the whole of Slytherin knows about it,” I sighed, “damn it Zabini,” I muttered pushing my way back to the dorms, and muttering the spell to let me walk into the boys dorm, the dorm was all but empty except for Draco and I presumed Zabini in the bathroom, he rose his eyebrow when I appeared. 

“I know, don’t say it,” I muttered grudgingly, sitting down on Zabini’s bed silently, I didn’t look at Draco as I waited, ten minutes later Zabini appeared, he began talking to Draco, not having noticed me, he was wearing a black suit with a dark green tie, the same colour as the dress I had first worn for Slug Club. I sighed quietly, if he didn’t notice I’d have to say something. Draco hinted in my direction, Blaise turned to where I was sat, eyes open in shock, “I know what I said Zabini, but if you don’t have anyone to go with, then I’ll go with you,” he stared at me for a moment, “bit late, don’t you think y/l/n?” I shrugged, “can’t blame a girl for trying,” getting to my feet I walked back out of the room and down the stairs.

“did you -” Dia asked as I walked past her, but I ignored her, and walked straight out of the common room and out into the hallway, ignoring the comments from the portrait about my outfit, the Slug Club party was in full swing by the time I arrived, and I made sure to stay well away from everyone else. The room had been turned green and red and was thoroughly tasteless. Sluggie’s speciality. Upon noticing Blaise’s arrival, I darted behind one of the curtains where Hermione was stood anxiously wringing her hands, “Hermione?” her eyes shot up to meet mine, before relief visibly spread over her, 

“I'm avoiding Cormac,” she explained quickly, “do you want to leave?” I asked quietly, she nodded quickly – a lot quicker than I had expected, “but I can’t,” I shook my head, “load of crap, I don’t want to be here either,” offering her my hand, we ducked out from behind the curtain, quickly making our way towards the door, glancing back, I caught sight of Blaise talking to one of the Carrow sisters, if I didn’t already despise him, then it would have been enough.

Hermione gave me a small smile as she gestured to leave, turning away from the scene behind me I nodded, still gripping each other’s hands, we walked along to where the room of requirement was located. “a soundproof living room,” I uttered, dragging Hermione behind me as the room opened up to us, we arrived in a decently sized room, with large comfortable sofas and a burning fire, “thanks for getting me out of there,” she muttered sitting down on one of the sofas, kicking off her heels. “no, thank you, I didn’t want to be there either,” I sat down on the sofa opposite her, kicking off my own heels, and running a hand through my hair, “why didn’t you?” she asked quietly, 

“if you don’t mind, I know Slytherins don’t like talking to Gryffindors,” I let out a small laugh, “I wouldn’t worry about that now. I didn’t want to be there because I hate it, and I had an argument with someone earlier and I couldn’t face them,” she stared at me for a moment, before quietly asking, “Zabini?” I turned away nodding, fiddling with the pearls around my neck, “do you mind me asking?” I shrugged, “ask what you feel like, we have a history, but I don’t even know what the history is,” I replied, continuing to fiddle with my necklace. 

She nodded slowly, turning to watch the flames, “why were you there with Cormac anyway?” she sighed, running a hand through her hair, “I don’t even have an answer if I'm honest, Ron was acting so horrendously and then he went off with Lavender,” I couldn’t stop the shudder at the mention of that girl, Hermione chuckled, “and somehow Cormac seemed like a decent alternative,” I nodded, “I understand completely what you mean.” We sat in silence for a while, before Hermione pulled out her wand, and cast a spell in front of us, letting us see the party, Cormac had clearly given up looking for her, and was instead fawning over a Carrow sister, 

“he does realise that she will never touch him, right?” I muttered under my breath, my eyes trying to ignore Blaise, “he’s on his own,” she murmured to me, gesturing to where Blaise was stood alone, looking bored out of his mind. “tough,” I muttered, she turned to me, a gentle smile on her lips, “you don’t mean that,” I glanced across to her, “oh believe me, I do,” I muttered, she shook her head, “you don’t. I’ve seen the way you look at him, you do feel something for him.”

I sighed running a hand through my hair, “what do I do?” she smiled, “we go back to the party,” I stared at her wide eyed, “Hermione you wanted to leave, why are you in such a hurry to go back?” she smiled, “because if you don’t try and talk to him, you can’t complain, and besides, I have to see Harry about Ginny,” she smiled putting her heels back on. I slowly put my heels back on, still confused, walking out of the room of requirement, we walked back along to the party, slipping back through the door like we had been there the entire time. Cormac hadn’t thankfully noticed our reappearance, Harry had though, “where have you two been?” he hissed, 

“would you believe we got lost?” he shot me a look that could have broken stone, “or not,” Hermione muttered, “seriously, where have you been? I’ve had to cover your back on Cormac, and proffessor was going crazy not knowing where you were,” he told stated looking to Hermione and then me. “don’t look at me, I don’t have a date, there is very little reason for me being here,” I silently groaned as I felt an arm slither around my waist, pulling me into someone’s very firm side, “that is hellishly unfair y/l/n, you do have a date,” Zabini commented offering Harry and Hermione the closest they were going to get to being noticed. 

Harry and Hermione disappeared into the crowd as I turned to Zabini, his arm still wrapped possesivly around my waist, “what do you want?” he stared down at me, “I have had to cover your back three hundred times it feels like tonight, I’ve had Sluggy continually asking where you are, because I should I know where my date is,” I rolled my eyes “where the hell did you disappear to?” we smiled at someone as they passed us before resuming, “well I didn’t exactly expect you to notice. Not like it matters Zabini, you could have just told him, seeing as I'm not your date,” he shook his head, “you are, and you can say what you like, but this will have to resume later,” he muttered as Sluggy approached us, “ahh Miss y/l/n, I lost sight of you, poor Mr Zabini here looked lost without you,” my eyebrow raised silently, “well I'm here now professor,” he nodded smiling, 

“I do hope you will stay,” he added before walking off to talk to someone else. “nice pearls by the way,” Blaise commented as we stood at the edge of the room, I made no effort to reply, noticing that his grip on my waist tightened significantly when Cormac appeared to be walking in our direction, “Zabini, y/l/n,” he muttered, “say y/l/n, why are you with Zabini? I thought you had some actual brains on you,” it was clear from his demeanour that he had been drinking more than pumpkin juice, and I gripped the back of Blaise’s jacket tighter. “love moves in mysterious ways,” I replied ignoring Blaise’s shocked expression, “Blaise and I are good friends,” Blaise sniggered quietly next to me, “bit of an overstatement,” he muttered, I nudged him to shut up, but it didn’t matter as Cormac hadn’t heard and had already stumbled off. 

“’love moves in mysterious ways’?” Blaise repeating his tone teasing, “shut it Zabini, I had to shut him up somehow,” the party soon drew to a close, and I watched as Hermione made her way off with Ginny and a cluster of Gryffindors. “you never did say where you went,” Blaise noted as we began to walk back towards our common room, having put a distance between us, “I didn’t go anywhere,” I replied, he stopped us in the middle of the hallway, “when are you going to stop lying? You did disappear,” I sighed turning to face him in the hallway, “why does it matter to you?” he stared at me for a moment before crossing the distance between us to be stood directly in front of me.

“you genuinely thought I was having you on, didn’t you?” I nodded silently, “you know, you can lie to me as many times as you want, but I’ll see through you every single time,” he murmured, “you said you don’t feel anything when I do this,” he placed his hand back under my chin, “but I know you are lying, it’s all in your eyes, we can play this game for years if you want, but you will have to answer me at some point.” His hand dropped from my chin and he walked off ahead, leaving me stood frozen for a moment in the middle of the hallway, he turned back to face me, “are you coming or what?” I stood still for a moment, before nodding and walking quickly to catch up with him. 

The rest of the walk was filled in silence, and we slipped into an empty common room for the second time, “when you are done lying, come find me,” Blaise stated walking off. I sighed walking up to my dorm, to where my dorm mates were huddled, “you didn’t ask us to do your makeup,” Pansy stated the second I walked through the door, “yeah sorry about that, I just wanted to get ready alone,” I muttered feebly, “what happened?” Neffie asked immediately. “I went up to the astronomy tower,” I told them everything. Until they were all staring at me in shock, “you have to do something about it,” Alice stated, I shook my head, “he just said to go and find him when I'm done lying,” I sat back on my bed, kicking off the heels, and peeling off the pearls, “so when are you going to?” Paige asked quietly, “I don’t know.” 

Pansy rose her eyebrow silently, “you’ve liked him for so long, but you’ve never told him, he clearly likes you, why don’t you go and talk to him?” I shrugged, “it doesn’t feel like it is that simple,” they all rolled their eyes, “enough with the crap,” Neffie declared passing my heels back to me, “go and talk to him, and do it now,” I sighed pulling my heels back on for the third time that night. “and don’t come back until you’ve done it,” Pansy yelled after me, as I held my wand tightly, weaving my way over to the boys’ dorm I knocked on the door, when Draco opened the door he rose an eyebrow silently.

“I’ll get him,” he muttered not bothering to shut the door, and instead walked across the room before pounding on the bathroom door, “Blaise! You’ve got a visitor!” he threw me a look as the whole dorm waited in silence for him to appear. A few moments later he did, still in his suit, he glanced at Draco, and then to me, “I need to talk to you,” I explained quietly, he made his way to the door in silence, before shutting the door behind him, and beginning to walk down the stairs. I followed behind him silently, walking back into the common room, we took a set at opposite ends of the sofa in front of the fire. “you said you wanted to talk,” he stated after a moment’s silence, “I did,” I took a deep breath in slowly, “… the reason I lied to you is really simple, you’ve probably figured it out by now, you seem smart enough,” he didn’t interrupt only raising an eyebrow.

“do you really want me to spell it out for you?” I asked quietly, no longer attempting to look him in the eye, instead fiddling with my hands, “yes y/n, I want you to spell it out, I want to hear it from your lips, no lies, pure honesty.” I dropped my hands into my lap, and looked up at him, “you want the truth? I’ve had the biggest crush on you for months, and I did nothing about it, I let it eat me up because I was so certain that you didn’t even know who I was. 

And then when Sluggy created his little club, I planned to avoid you as much as possible, because I didn’t want to get caught up in your games, I can’t do this anymore Zabini, I can’t keep pretending,” I got up off the sofa, ignoring the man who had been silent for the duration. “there, I said it, you can go and laugh to all your friends about how stupid little y/l/n fell for you,” he remained silent, there was nothing more to say. I walked back up to my dorm, not looking back. Shoving open the door, I kicked off my heels, “I said it, but he said nothing back.” I declared to the room, not bothering to get out of my dress, and just cleaning away my makeup before climbing into bed. 

What had I done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3!!! I really hope you are all enjoying this series, I had a lot of fun writing it, one more chapter and then this will be finished! Any thoughts? Hope you liked it :)


	4. The Moring After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The whole of Slytherin woke up in a good mood, except for me. Slytherin vs Hufflepuff promised to be an easy match, and the last one of the season, Ravenclaw had got knocked out early on, and even Gryffindor had somehow got themselves off the score sheet. No complaints from Draco’s direction. I sighed sitting up in my bed, I was still wearing the dress from Slug Club’s infamous Christmas party, and I couldn’t honestly have cared less.

The whole of Slytherin woke up in a good mood, except for me. Slytherin vs Hufflepuff promised to be an easy match, and the last one of the season, Ravenclaw had got knocked out early on, and even Gryffindor had somehow got themselves off the score sheet. No complaints from Draco’s direction. I sighed sitting up in my bed, I was still wearing the dress from Slug Club’s infamous Christmas party, and I couldn’t honestly have cared less. While my dorm mates tried to empathise, I knew they were growing tired of my moping, instead of dwelling on it, I attempted to put on a happy expression, brushing out my hair, and pulling on my uniform after a hot shower I was beginning to feel more human. 

“you look better,” Pansy commented as I adjusted my cloak, “mhmm, can’t say I feel it,” I muttered, “by the way, I got that book you wanted,” I passed her book out of my trunk, she squealed for a moment before diving to hug me tightly, “thank you so much.” When the rest of our dorm was finally ready, we did our second to last walk down to the great hall, I felt sick to my stomach at the thought of seeing Blaise, and made sure to keep myself towards the middle of the group, talking to Paige and Alice. The great hall was packed for a breakfast, all of the quidditch players scattered on each table talking excitedly, we worked our way over to the Slytherin table, no one turned to face us which I was grateful for, and the few that did I avoided meeting their eyes. I pushed most of the food away from me, selecting a juice but it sat in front of me untouched, 

“you can’t not eat or drink y/n, even if it is the last day of term,” Neffie stated, I shrugged ignoring the drink nonetheless, my eyes wandered across the table and I was thankful to not be able to see Zabini or Malfoy. “you should drink,” a voice behind me murmured and I wasn’t delighted when it wasn’t Higgs, Blaise sat down next to me, “if I have to make you eat I will,” he stated ignoring the curious looks of my friends, “get lost Zabini,” I muttered refusing to look at him. and instead settled for focusing on the untouched glass of juice which was no doubt lukewarm from how long it had been sat on the table. 

He rolled his eyes, turning to Pansy, “I know she never eats, but damn, what is it going to take for her to drink?” Pansy’s eyes narrowed at him protectively, “maybe if she didn’t feel completely humiliated, then she might, she’s a private sort of person – something which you should realise, and she’s been destroyed by certain people’s lack of common decency,” Blaise recoiled like he had been bitten, before looking at me, I avoided his eyes but I could feel his gaze on me. He sighed getting back off the seat and walking towards Draco, “thanks Pans,” I muttered slowly taking a sip of the juice – which was lukewarm as expected, she offered a smile knowing there was very little anyone could say in this situation that would ease the growing tension. The second breakfast was over, there were thirty minutes between the quidditch match starting, 

just enough time for everyone to grab their scarves, and we all scrabbled out of the hall back up to our dorms to grab some warm clothes. I wrapped my Slytherin scarf tightly around my neck, letting my hair curl out over the top of it, the green more visible than it had been – so much for it ‘fading.’ We slid into our seats on the quidditch stands, somehow having guaranteed ourselves a front row seat – sandwiched with Higgs and his friends (a fact I was grateful for), “are you nervous?” Neffie asked turning to Pansy, while I sat silently, watching the empty field, the other stands began to fill up, including the Slytherin one. 

Higgs squeezed in next to me, and with a knowing look, took my hand, intwining it with his, and then sliding it into his pocket, “I hear last night didn’t go too well,” he murmured after a moment of silence, I shook my head silently, allowing him to pull me into his side. “seeing as your brother isn’t here to hug you, I’ll do it for him,” he murmured, I smiled, letting his warmth radiate onto me, “you are the best second brother ever,” I murmured to him. He laughed heartily, “you’ll always have me, and I can kick his butt if you want me to,” I smiled at Terrence’s protectiveness, but shook my head, “I’ll get over it,” I didn’t need to look up to know he was smiling, and he remained by my side the entire time, sheltering me – more than him – from the cold air that whipped around the stands. 

The match soon began, and it was true that Blaise made an excellent chaser, scoring multiples points one after another after another, until eventually everything came to an end – several freezing cold hours later, Malfoy caught the snitch, Slytherin won. We all cheered loudly, but my eyes were fixed on the tall boy in green, who was one of the first back off the field, “do you want to go and congratulate him?” Pansy asked nudging me gently, I nodded, “let’s go and congratulate them.” I extracted myself from Terrence, promising I would meet up with him later, and instead linked arms with Pansy, to go and find the chaser of the match.

Slytherin winning the cup promised one thing, a huge after party, but I needed to speak to Blaise before that, but by the time we got down from the stands, the quidditch team had all but disappeared. “they must really want to go and frame that trophy,” Paige muttered. Along with the rest of Slytherin house, we slowly wove our way through to the common room, which had already burst into life. The lake crashed against the waves as the trophy took pride of place in the glass vault box that had been created years before our arrival, the trophy shone down on the room as everyone cheered. The promise of dinner distracted our celebrations, but everyone was aware of the grand scale party that would take place once dinner had finished. 

The great hall was covered in green and silver, because for once Gryffindor couldn’t take our win, sliding into our seats again, we all felt a wave of sadness crash over us, “we’ll be back after Christmas,” Neffie stated watching as we all glanced around sadly, “yay, Christmas,” Alice muttered, her family were primarily death eaters, so as far as they were concerned, Christmas was just another day. I knew how she felt, it was only thanks to my mum’s efforts that Christmas was important, she forced our dad to stop his hounding for magical elitism for five minutes, and we celebrated Christmas as best as we could. It was also the reason Alice frequently visited us, 

“but you’ll be coming to us, right?” I asked, a delighted smile crossed her face, “I'm still welcome?” I rolled my eyes at her, her smile widening, “I’d love to come,” I smiled back at her, it was our family tradition to have someone over. Alice had taken that place for recent years due to her own family’s lack of interest, and it always made Christmas that bit happier, especially for our family, and of course, for Alice herself. The bench next to us dipped for Blaise and Draco, and I pretended not to have noticed that Blaise had slid in next to me, “I need to talk to you when all this is over,” he muttered quietly – not quietly enough though, I turned to face him slowly, “you should’ve done that a while ago,” Neffie stated from where she was sat, fixing him with a dark glare, in return she received a glare from Blaise, I nodded silently – what could he have left to say, 

“well done Draco,” I congratulated him, he smiled, “Blaise did really well too,” I offered a small nod to Blaise before turning back to the table where food had appeared. While everyone else tucked in rapidly, I ate slower, knowing if I planned on drinking the amount of fire whiskey I wanted to, then I needed to make sure the food would line my stomach. The final goodbye was always emotional, even if it was only for a holiday break, but for once it didn’t feel like a proper goodbye, because we had finally won the cup back, after years of trying. 

The second Dumbledore released us, Slytherin house was practically out the door, pushing everyone else out of the way, already running through the castle in the direction of the common room, I held back slightly, deciding not to run, I’d done it many times before, one less time wasn’t going to be the end of me. “not running?” Blaise’s voice questioned from behind me, where he was walking leisurely down the hallway, I shrugged stopping to face him, “why bother? I’ve done it for years,” he shook his head, “all the more reason to do it,” he replied, sliding his hand into mine, “if you don’t run y/n, I will drag you with me,” I shook my head, keeping a firm grip on our intwined hands, rooting him to the spot,

“you said you wanted to talk. Last time we tried talking we didn’t get very far, I'm not going any further until you tell me what you wanted to say,” he sighed stopping opposite me, “let’s talk about it in the common room, I don’t want to talk about in the hallway,” I looked up at him, taking my hand out of his. “and people wonder why we never get anywhere,” I grumbled walking in the direction of the common room, uncaring as to whether he was behind me or not. The decorations in the common room had already begun to take shape and I hurried through up to our dorm where my friends were already braiding, and curling hair, I smiled standing behind Alice to start braiding her hair. 

“did you talk to him?” she asked quietly fiddling with the hem of her dress, “if by talk you mean actually discuss it, then no, he just made some stupid comments, and here I am,” I replied tying off the last part of one braid before moving onto the next. “he didn’t talk to you about it?” Neffie asked from her bed, I shook my head sighing, “I can’t even say I'm surprised,” I muttered finishing Alice’s second braid, Pansy shook her head, pushing me down onto the bed as soon as I completed Alice’s hair, and started to separate my hair into sections, while the other girls disappeared into the bathroom she turned to me. 

“are you ok about it?” I shrugged, “it doesn’t matter if I am or not, it’s not like he is going to do anything about it, he made that clear,” she sighed beginning to curl my hair, “I can’t hide it anymore, I told him, he didn’t reply, and now we have to work together for Sluggy because apparently my suffering isn’t over yet.” Pansy offered a sympathetic smile, “you could always get with Draco instead,” I laughed starting to apply as she continued to curl my hair. “Oh yes because that would make it all the better, ferret boy,” she shrugged, “most girls wouldn’t turn him down,” I shrugged, “but he isn’t the one I want,” she laughed poking my cheek, “see what happens tonight,” her eyes had a small glint in them, “Pansy, what do you know?” she smiled turning away, “just wait and see,” she replied, passing me my dress.

Or rather, a dress. Because this certainly wasn’t one I would have bought.

I stared at the dress for a moment in utter shock, the back had been cut out, and instead held the front of the dress in place by small strings which connected to a piece of lace running down the back, not to mention how short it was. “what the hell is this!?!” Pansy smiled mysteriously, pushing my black heels towards me, “your outfit?” Neffie commented walking back into the room, before glancing at the dress, “there isn’t much of it,” she stated matter of fact, and I nodded silently in agreement, still staring at it in shock, “you have got to be kidding me Pans, there is no way in hell, that I am wearing this.” 

She shrugged passing me a small envelope that I immediately recognised, “I wasn’t the one who brought it,” she stated gesturing to the envelope. I groaned turning it over recognising the Zabini coat of arms, “that boy is going to be the death of me,” I muttered looking over the dress again, ignoring the envelope I glanced at the dress, “what the hell is up with that boy?” Alice asked holding up the dress, “it isn’t bad though,” my eyes widened at her, “not that bad!??! Please someone tell me I have another dress, any other dress,” I groaned reaching for the envelope not giving a second glance to the seal, and instead pulling out another piece of card with the same handwriting.

‘seeing as you thought I was joking, hopefully this should help you realise just how serious I am.’

I tossed the card down, and picked the dress back up, “what am I gonna do?” I groaned as the other girls climbed into their considerably better dresses, “I'm not his property, he doesn’t get to buy clothes for me,” I muttered to myself, reaching in my trunk to search for any other dresses I might remotely have. But naturally, I didn’t. “looks like you are wearing that dress after all,” Pansy stated smirking, “not funny Pans,” I muttered walking into the bathroom, and changing into it, I stood in front of the mirror, scrutinising the dress from every angle, it wasn’t particularly bad, I would grant him that much, but by no means was I a fan of it. 

Pulling it down again, I ran a hand through my curls, “see, it looks good on you,” Pansy commented from the doorway, “how did he get it in here?” she shrugged, I’d known Pansy a long time, and it didn’t take much for me to realise when she was lying, I rose my eyebrow at her silently waiting for an answer, “ok so I might have had something to do with it,” I rolled my eyes and she shrugged, “I was just doing him a favour,” I shook my head at her, a smile on the edge of my lips. She smiled back, as we walked back into the main dorm, slipping into our heels, and sliding our wands into our various pockets (don’t ask me how the dresses have pockets, they do somehow) Pansy and Neffie walked ahead, while Paige, Alice and I hung back. “are you ok wearing that dress?” Alice asked, “I have a different dress if you want it,” I shook my head, 

“I have to talk to him at some point, if I'm wearing this I guess it shows that I'm willing to interact with him,” the pair shrugged in agreement (slightly unconvinced agreement) as we followed our way into the common room, where half of Slytherin house was already heavily imbibing. And the evening had only just begun. I took a glass of fire whiskey off one of the tables, only to have it taken out of my hand moments later by a tall boy stood next to me, “never had you down as a fire whiskey kind of person,” Blaise commented drinking some of the whiskey, he was dress in black jeans and a white t-shirt, and I could tell from his smug expression that as per usual he was enjoying the view, 

“well I am,” I replied, running my finger around the rim of the glass, to collect a few of the spilt droplets, before bringing my finger up to my lip, and licking up the liquid, feeling the immediate burn down my throat. I watched without comment as Blaise’s eyes followed my movements, “do you like the dress?” he asked quietly as we remained standing on the very edge of the room, as far away from everyone else as the space would allow. “I'm wearing it aren’t I?” he shrugged, “that means very little, I asked if you like it,” I shrugged not bothering to comment as I noticed my brother and sister dancing with their various friends, or be that, Stefan and Higgs dancing like they had just walked off the set of magic mike, while several of Dia’s friends fanned themselves. “you said we needed to talk, I'm not seeing much talking,” he sighed running a hand through his hair, 

“I wanted to discuss it with you, but I don’t suppose you want to hear what I have to say,” I shrugged nonchalantly, “surprise me,” he passed me back the glass before bending down, until his mouth was next to my ear, “you said you wanted the truth, and you gave me the truth, so I suppose I ought to tell you the truth as well.” He was cut off by the sound of Apple Bottom Jeans filling the common room, the mandatory song for the girls of Slytherin to dance to, I passed him back the glass silently, walking into the centre of the room where the rest of the girls were clustered without so much as a backward glance. 

Most of the first years stared on in utter confusion, but any year above knew the history, all Slytherin girls danced to Apple Bottom Jeans, while all Slytherin boys danced to Take Your Shirt Off, at these parties, it had become a custom a while ago and no one had bothered to get rid of it. 

As the music filled the room, we danced, the same moves that were practiced for months before these parties, I somehow wound up dancing with Pansy who had a smug expression on as we approached the ‘low’ part of the song. It was customary for all girl to do the drop, and we had practiced in front of mirrors since we first became aware of the tradition, without blinking, all the girls in the room dropped, and wove our way back up, there was a very obvious smirk on Pansy’s face, and I followed her eyeline over to where Blaise was stood still holding the now empty glass of whiskey, leaning against the wall – unsurprisingly enjoying the view. 

“I think he’s enjoying the show,” she murmured as we continued to dance, “I couldn’t care less if he isn’t,” I replied, the following part of the song had one rule, each girl had to either go up to a guy and dance in front of him, or stay dancing in the centre of the room. “if you don’t go over and dance with him, someone else will,” Neffie commented with Pansy nodding by her side, I glared at the pair of them as they pushed me in Blaise’s direction. The beat drop meant that only a few girls were left in the centre of the room, and I somehow found myself dancing in front of Blaise. Delightful. His signature smirk covered his face as he watched, placing a thumb under my chin, bringing his mouth closer to my ear again, “aren’t you worried about your brother seeing? Or maybe Higgs?” he murmured not so subtly licking his lips. 

“no,” I replied smirking when the section came to an end, and I could at long last take my position back in the centre of the room, “bet that felt good,” Neffie teased as we continued dancing, “oh yeah totally,” I muttered sarcastically knowing she didn’t believe me for a minute. When at long last the song came to an end, the air was filled with cheers and whistles, as we all dropped out of the pose that we had held for the last moment, sighing I got back up and walked over to where Zabini was stood looking incredibly smug, “you said you had a crush on me, sweetie, you still have one,” he murmured, passing me a glass of topped up fire whiskey, before walking into the centre of the room, where the speakers were being turned up, 

“it’s time!” Pansy squealed, each girl had separated slightly, so there was space around them as we stood waiting for the boys. I had migrated to Blaise’s position of leaning against the wall, the glass still in my hand. The first years really hadn’t anticipated how Slytherin do parties. As Take Your Shirt Off started to beat the through the speakers, my eyes focused in on one person alone, ignoring all the rest of them, I watched as Blaise danced, I sipped on my fire whiskey as I watched in silence, while all the other girls cheered loudly. Like the girls’ song, the boys also had the option to go up to a girl of their choice, 

and from the glint in Blaise’s eye, I could tell I wasn’t about to like whatever he was planning on doing. And as expected, he made his way in my direction, dancing in front of me, I tried to look anywhere but in front of me, feeling my hand hit the cold stone, until he was towering above me, “crap,” I muttered quietly, watching his smirk rise, as the rest of the boys reappeared back in the centre, with one final move – lifting up their shirts to reveal all of their abs. “wonder how long they spent in the gym for that,” I muttered to Paige, who had come to stand next to me, knocking back some of the fire whiskey, “well you looked cosy,” she replied smirking, “it was anything but comfortable,” I replied watching dubiously as Blaise wove his way back over to me.

“Oh Merlin,” I muttered under my breath, just as Alice suddenly disappeared, “enjoy the show?” he asked standing next to me, “not really,” I replied, taking another sip of fire whiskey, if I had to be stood next to him, I was going to need something to keep me sane. Just as I went to take another gulp, he lifted the glass out of my hand, my eyes shot up to his, fixing him with a glare, “still not figured it out?” he asked nonchalantly, I folded my arms over my chest, “figured out what Zabini?” his eyebrow rose silently, just as my friends disappeared off into the crowd, leaving us alone, 

“you clearly still have a crush on me, so answer me this, are you seriously going to deny me if we went off to the room of requirement?” I stared at him in complete silence, “the proof is all around you sweetie, you are wearing it,” he murmured, gently lifting up the strap on the dress, before letting it drop back onto my skin. “Blaise…” I muttered in time to hear crashing behind us, my eyes dropped from his immediately, just in time to see Neffie practically on top of Draco. 

“that’s going to end well,” Blaise commented easily before turning back to me with a smirk, “if I took you to the room of requirement right now sweetie, I don’t think you’d be complaining,” I rolled my eyes, turning back to the party, where almost all of the first and second years had disappeared. Smart move. After the dancing, the parties only got more and more risqué and drunkard. Escape while you can was always the motto for the youngest students, clearly the second year students hadn’t gotten used to us yet.

“you know Zabini, you talk a lot about lying, but you sure are elusive when it comes to answering questions yourself,” I commented leaning back on the stone wall, ignoring the coldness against my exposed back, and placed my heel against it to keep me stable, his eyebrow rose, as he stood directly in front of me, blocking my view from everyone else, and their view of us. “for such a bright witch it doesn’t seem to have clicked yet,” he murmured, I stared eye-level to him, raising my eyebrow, “who says I haven’t Zabini? Maybe I just want to hear you say it.” Blaise’s eyebrow rose again, “you want me to say it?” I nodded silently, taking the glass from his hand, and resting it in my own, 

“you made me say it, so yes, I want to hear you say it,” he shook his head sighing, “so damn stubborn,” he murmured, taking the fire whiskey out of my hand and putting it on the table next to us, before placing both of his hands either side of my head against the wall. “you know exactly what I want,” he murmured pressing a kiss down on my neck, “I want you,” he murmured, I stared at him completely silent, Blaise Zabini was never forward about what he wanted, unless it was something he could get easily. 

And I was definitely not easy. 

“do you know how difficult you’ve been to try and get? So damn hard that I was considering calling it quits,” I stared at him still in complete silence, “but when you began to talk to me, I realised I could try one more time, and what do you know? Here you are,” my mouth was probably hanging open, but I couldn’t care less any more, I genuinely hadn’t thought he felt anything for me, “well, it’s taken astronomy towers, the Slug Club and a dress, but I finally have you,” he murmured, standing up to his full height. We stared at each for a moment in silence, the party continuing around us, completely unaware, I sighed quietly, reaching up and placing my hand on the back of his neck, before bringing his lips down onto mine, 

“I should’ve done that a long time ago” I murmured against his lips, when he moved back he smirked. “where were you honestly at Sluggy’s Christmas party?” I shrugged, “I was with Hermione, she wanted to avoid someone,” his eyebrow rose, “you weren’t running away from me?” I shrugged again, “I think you were,” he murmured into my ear, “and it’s the funniest thing, it was Harry who asked me where you were,” my eyebrow rose but I avoided meeting his eye, “and the whole time, I had to stand there hoping you would reappear,” I scoffed quietly.

“Blaise Zabini doesn’t hope,” I stated, he shrugged, “when it comes to you, I've done a lot of hoping, ask Draco, he’s pretty fed up of hearing it,” I stared at him in silence, “let’s get out of here,” he muttered, linking his fingers through mine, I nodded, breathing out a breath I hadn’t been aware I had been holding. He smiled, a genuine smile, before leading us out of the common room and up to his dorm room, as his bed was the furthest from the door, he quickly drew the curtains around it, while I kicked off my heels, hiding them behind his trunk so that they weren’t obvious. Blaise smirked from where he was stood, pulling off his top, I didn’t react for a moment as he pulled off his jeans and then scrambled into the bed, “are you getting in or what?” he asked, 

I nodded silently, pulling the dress off, before climbing onto the bed with him, and pulling the curtain on my side of the bed shut. All of the curtains were shut, and suddenly we were on his bed in semi-darkness, “you know,” he stated calmly leaning against the pillows, “you sure are a stubborn woman,” I rose my eyebrow, sitting in front of him on the bed in silence. “Merlin, I had to resort to a dress and giving it to Pansy,” I rolled my eyes, “maybe if you’d talked when I’d suggested it…” he shrugged calmly, “maybe, but neither of us seemed in any willing position to talk,” I shrugged, climbing up the bed, and settling on his lap, “I'm here now,” he smirked wrapping his arms around my waist to hold me in place on his lap, “indeed you are.”

He replied pressing his lips to mine, before rolling us onto our sides, I automatically snuggled closer to him, the blanket covering us, the party could still be heard below, but for the moment at least, we were in our own quiet little world. 

…

The morning after the party

I groaned quietly, light was falling onto the bed, which seemed strange considering I could’ve sworn that we had shut the curtains, Blaise shifted next to me, burying my face in his chest as we both attempted to avoid the sunlight that wasn’t helping the headache I already had. “rise and shine!” Draco declared flinging open the remaining curtains in a chirpy sing song tone, I groaned burying my head further into Blaise and the duvet, “looks like you slept well,” Draco commented smugly to Blaise who had sat up, while I tried to pretend I couldn’t hear Malfoy. 

“Dray, I'm giving you ten seconds to close these curtains and shut the hell up,” Blaise stated, sleep lacing his voice, “well too bad for you pumpkin,” Draco replied smugly, “it’s Sunday and breakfast is soon,” I groaned at the thought of breakfast, a smug Draco laughed in the background, realising he wasn’t going to disappear anytime soon, I sat up, running a hand through my hair, and glared at him. “Malfoy, shut the hell up,” I muttered fumbling for my wand on the bedside table and managing to cast an anti-hangover spell, easing the tension in my head, Draco stood smirking nonetheless, “what is it?” Blaise asked as I dropped back onto the pillows, “I'm just wondering what exactly you two crazy kids got up to,” he replied smirking, gesturing to our discarded clothes at the end of the bed, 

“ever tried sleeping in a skin tight dress?” I asked sarcastically, noticing how Blaise was clearly still fighting his hangover, I muttered the same charm on him, he offered a grateful smile before turning back to Draco. “sleeping in jeans isn’t comfortable,” he stated calmly, reaching for his pillow and lobbing it at Draco who caught it, dropping it onto the bottom of the bed. “well if you two don’t hurry up, Snape is going to lose it with you and assume the worst, and Pansy is looking for you,” he added turning to me, “wonderful,” I grumbled reaching for the dress, and pulling it over my head, “see you at breakfast,” I muttered to Blaise, choosing to ignore Draco’s rose eyebrow as I slid my heels back on, and grabbed my wand, muttering a spell on my hair as I scrambled out of the bed and then walked back to my dorm room.

Where four expectant faces were waiting for me, “we didn’t do anything,” I muttered kicking off my heels, and tying my hair up, “of course not,” Pansy stated, Neffie smirking behind her, “because doing nothing obviously leads to marks on your neck,” my eyes widened, and I dashed into the bathroom where a purple mark sat on my neck, “what the hell!?!” I quickly pulled my hair out of the ponytail, letting it drop, in an attempt to cover my neck, “absolutely nothing,” Alice sang as she shrugged on the last of her outfit. I groaned pushing the door shut, and locking it, showering quickly I sighed, and swapped into jeans and a top, re-entering the dorm room, I pulled on my boots,

“don’t say it,” I grumbled, stuffing my wand into my pocket. The walk down to the great hall was filled with the new game - tease me until I snapped at someone, taking a seat at the Slytherin table, I took a glass of water, “you must be feeling bad,” Paige commented sympathetically, “nah, she’s just waiting for her knight in green armour,” Neffie commented smirking, “don’t make me curse you,” I hissed at her, sipping the water, adjusting my hoodie to cover up as much of my neck as possible. 

“hiding it?” Blaise asked sliding into the seat next to me, with a smug Draco opposite, “I didn’t even know it was there until it was pointed out,” I hissed angrily at him, while Draco continued smirking, “drop the smirk Draco, we all remember you and Neffie last night,” I stated sipping the water, only to receive a glare from him, Blaise smirked at his friend’s discomfort, taking my hand out of my lap, and sliding his hand into mine, intwining our fingers under the table. “don’t even think of running off now, I’ve finally got you,” he murmured quietly, “wouldn’t dream of it,” I replied equally quietly, he smiled warmly – a true genuine smile that I would never have thought him capable of, squeezing my hand gently as breakfast continued. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I first thought, and we had both got wanted we wanted, even if we had both, originally missed the obvious.

The soppy end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well there we have it, one whole series completed, four chapters, onto the next piece, right? I will have some new pieces soon (I just need to go and write those) - finally I hoped you all enjoyed reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them, thank you for reading if you made it all the way down here! I really appreciate it and all of the positive comments genuinely make my day, so once again, a huge thank you! *virtual hug* I hope you are all staying safe and well, and I'll see you on the next piece! :) Thank you!!!!!! :) ^-^

**Author's Note:**

> Well here it is! I've been working on this for months - and I mean months - I'm so happy with this, so I hope you all like it as well. As always I hope you are all staying safe and well - I personally haven't left my house in a while (no complaints) and instead have been editing this like crazy, I hope the wait was worth it! Until next time :)


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